Brad Pitt was left 'scared half to death' after F1 training session with Lewis Hamilton

"He wanted to be in Top Gun [Maverick]," legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer said of the British driver during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "But when Joe told him the time commitment, he said, ‘No, I've got a day job. I can't take off for three, four months!"

That wish might not have come to fruition, but the connection that was established meant Kosinski was able to call on Hamilton as soon as he embarked on this new project. The director felt that having such a high-profile personality on board would help fulfil his ambition of making an "authentic racing film" and luckily for him the project was something Hamilton was only too keen to lend his considerable expertise to.

"He felt like he had never seen a racing film that really captured the experience of what it's like to drive one of these cars and really show the amount of preparation, both physically and mentally, that these drivers go through every weekend to drive one of these machines," Kosinski explained.

"So he wanted to get that into the film. And you'll see that in Sonny [Brad Pitt] and Joshua [Damon Idris]'s training – even down to Sonny studying the manual for the car before the race.

"All those little details are things that Lewis gave us to help make it as authentic as possible.”

There was another key role that Hamilton played, too: showing Brad Pitt the ropes when it came to stepping inside an F1 car for real. Both Pitt and co-star Damson Idris were actually behind the wheel while filming the movie's several high-octane racing scenes, and naturally this meant a lot of practise was required to ensure everything could be achieved safely.

"Lewis took Brad out to a track and let him drive, and said, ‘Look, he's really a good, good, good athlete, great reaction time and hand eye coordination,'" Bruckheimer explained. "So we were pretty comfortable. And then Lewis took Brad for a ride in a car. I'm sure he scared him half to death!"

It's not surprising that the actors might have been scared, and Kosinski admits that there were a couple of hairy moments in the early stages. But fortunately, he was ultimately able to use these to the film's advantage. "There were a couple of spin outs during practice and rehearsals – big ones," he said.

"Luckily, [for] a few [of them] I had the cameras rolling and I was able to put into the film. So, some of those spins and trips into the gravel that you see in the film are real and weren't something we had planned for! But, I was lucky in that both Brad and Damson are natural athletes and great students, and really picked it up very, very quickly."

For his part, Idris recalls jumping into a car for the first time four months before shooting commenced. He went to Silverstone every single day for a considerable stretch to really familiarise himself with the track, before using simulators to prepare for several of the other circuits he'd be driving on – from Abu Dhabi to Budapest and Monza to Vegas.

"All of that training really helped us so that by the time we started filming, it was a seamless journey," he said. "But then you add the elements of all the cameras that were mounted on the car, and you're dealing with field of vision and perfecting that, and lighting, and overacting – because the only thing you could see are the eyes."

It was a lot of work, but for Idris, there's no doubt it was a worthwhile experience. "It was amazing," he said. "And when you watch the movie... everything you see is exactly how we were feeling!”

F1 will be released in cinemas on Wednesday 25th June 2025.

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